The songs that made my year

This year, in lieu of any categorical rankings or countdowns, I’ve simply decided to highlight my favorite music of 2014 by offering a smattering of songs that have been particularly significant to me. I think it’s worth mentioning that not all of these tunes were released this year, it isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, and they’re organized autobiographically (High Fidelity-style). That is, they’re listed in order of when they were significant to me, starting with this Vampire Weekend remix that I discovered on January 2, 2014, and finishing with D’Angelo’s recently released single. All have links to YouTube or Soundcloud where you can hear them.

I hope everyone enjoyed the past year as much as I did. I also hope you’re all as excited for 2015 as I am. We live in a crazy, exciting, unpredictable time — let’s all agree to make the most of every day while we’re all here together. Maybe these songs will help you with that.